Axelle
A feminine name of French origin meaning "she who belongs to noble, bright kind".
Name Census estimates that about 196 living Americans carry the first name Axelle. It is a predominantly female name (97.5% of registrations). The average person named Axelle today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Axelle births was 2017 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Axelle. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Axelle with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
196
~ 1 in 1,748,747 Americans
Peak year
2017
19 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2019 SSA rank
#10,348
Tracked since 1999
Census
Axelle in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 268 people with the first name Axelle, which placed it at #31,773 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#31,773
National first-name rank
People counted
268
268 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
49.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Axelle
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Axelle is White at 49.6%. The next largest groups are Black (22.4%) and Hispanic (17.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Axelle described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Axelle at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White49.6% · 133
- Black or African American22.4% · 60
- Hispanic or Latino17.5% · 47
- Two or more races7.1% · 19
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Axelle
Axelle leans heavily female at 97.5% of total registrations, but 5 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Axelle as a male name
- Ranked #12,343 in 2019
- 5 male births in 2019
- Peak: 2019 (5 births)
Axelle as a female name
- Ranked #10,348 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2017 (19 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Axelle leans strongly female. 247 people counted with this name were female (91.5%), compared with 23 male bearers (8.5%).
Popularity
Axelle: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Axelle from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 109 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Axelle remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Axelle by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Axelle during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Axelles live
Origin
Meaning and history of Axelle
The name Axelle is derived from the Old French word "aixile," which means "from Aix." Aix is a city in southern France, and the name likely originated as a locational surname for someone who was born or lived in that region. The name can be traced back to the 12th century in France.
Axelle is a feminine name, and it is a variant spelling of the more common French name Alix or Alice. In medieval France, the name Alix was a popular aristocratic name, and it was borne by several notable women of the time, including Alix of France, who was the Queen consort of Cyprus in the 13th century.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Axelle is from the 14th century, when a woman named Axelle de Châtillon was mentioned in the records of the French nobility. She was a member of the influential Châtillon family and lived during the reign of King Charles VI.
In the 16th century, there was a French noblewoman named Axelle de Montmorency, who was a part of the prestigious Montmorency family. She was known for her patronage of the arts and her role in the French Renaissance.
Another notable person with the name Axelle was Axelle de Longwy, a 17th-century French artist and engraver. She was renowned for her intricate etchings and engravings, and her work is still studied and admired by art historians today.
In the 19th century, Axelle de Brazza was a French explorer and colonial administrator who played a significant role in the colonization of the Congo region. She was born in 1859 and was known for her explorations of the Congo River and her efforts to establish French colonial rule in the area.
During the 20th century, Axelle Red was a famous Belgian singer-songwriter who rose to prominence in the 1990s. Her real name was Fabienne Demal, but she adopted the stage name Axelle Red. She was born in 1968 and is known for her unique blend of pop, rock, and French chanson styles.
While the name Axelle has French origins, it has been adopted and used in other cultures and languages over time, reflecting the global influence of French language and culture.
People
Axelle + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Axelle as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Axelle: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Axelle?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 196 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Axelle going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,748,747 US residents.
Is Axelle a common name?
We classify Axelle as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 198 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Axelle most popular?
The single biggest year for Axelle was 2017, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Axelle is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Axelle in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 268 people with the name Axelle, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #31,773 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Axelle in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Axelle?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Axelle leans strongly female. 247 people counted with this name were female (91.5%), compared with 23 male bearers (8.5%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Axelle?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Axelle is White at 49.6%. The next largest groups are Black (22.4%) and Hispanic (17.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Axelle most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Axelle in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.6% (133 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Axelle in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Axelle a female name?
Yes, 97.5% of people registered as Axelle in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Axelle still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Axelle in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Axelle can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Axelle?
Want to know how many Americans are named Axelle? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.